Means for detachably connecting braced supporting legs to gun mountings



March 26, 1935. H. HERLACH El AL MEANS FOR DETACJZABLIY CONNECTING BRACED SUPPORTING LEGS T6 GUN MOUNT INGS Filed Nov. 27, 1935 Qua the removal of at least one supporting leg, which,

for firing,

- same time.

- T \sMOUNTINGrS t MEANS For: JDETACHABLYJCONNECTING BRACED SUPPORTING LEGS TO v V Heinrichj Herlachand FritiI Herla ch, Solothurn; ,S'witzerlani'asisignors to. Wafienfabrik Solo- "thurlr A.-G.,,"Solothurn, Switzerland, a; cor-1 notation of Switzerland- I ppncteonstteabtt 2'2, 'isgjjsetaim. 925,991

. T w Germany December 19, 1932. Y 6 Claims. or. 83-40) This invention relates to gun, mountings supported by bracedlegswhich can be collapsed and removed if desired, j for convenience of transport.

' In such mou'nting's which are. adapted to travel on. wheels, it is scustomary-whenthe 1 travelling position is assumedfor. a supporting leg: .to be released from itsconnection with the gun mount ing and then, with the two otherilegswhichare placed-togethen used for forming a trail. Also tripod carriages, which :are transported divided up into separate loads, necessitate for transport when the gun mounting is assembled must bespecially reattached.

In a certain kind of gun mounting intended and suitable for machine guns of the heavier type, of the order of magnitude of 2 cm. bore or more, for each supporting leg there are provided two difierent connections which,when the leg is.

removed from or connected to the body of the gun carriage, must both be attended 'to at the One of these serves forming the end of the supporting leg on the body of the gun carriage and the other belongs to a removable bracing member engaging with the supporting leg and adapted to be removed therewith, The

object of the inventionis, inthe case of such arrangements with a plurality of points of con nection, to make the operationof detaching andreassembling a supporting leg so simple and safe that it can be completely mastered by the gun crew, with a minimumyof successive manipulations and can also be carried out rapidly and without mistakes in exceptional circumstances where great speed is essential, and at timeswhen momentary confusion prevails.

With this object in view, according to the in vention, in thecase of braced supporting legs,

a locking device for fastening the end of the supporting leg to the body of the gun mounting, is

geous example of construction giving details of the invention.

i-Fig. l is a side view of atripodgun mounting with a removable front leg; Figs. 2 and 3 show ithe' supporting leg :port.

byitself, removed for trans- LFor the attachment of the supporting leg 1 m r the body 2 of the gun mounting, there are provided two bearing points disposed one over the 8lwhichis connected'to the supporting leg 1 so,

as to pivot about the pin 9. .In the position shown ingFig. 1, the bo1t '6 couples the hitched strut 6 with the body 2 of the gun mounting, while after moving through about 90, the strut may be released for folding down against the leg.

.. The means of connection of the supporting leg 1 consist of two hook-shaped rigid bearing jaws l which are adapted to engage the supporting pin 3 on the body of thegun mounting and are supplemented by the movable jaw 11 so as in effect to form a pair of tongs. jaw 11 is'a sliding member and is held in the closed or locking position by aspring 12. The supporting legconnected as shown in Fig. l is coupled with the body 2 of the gun mounting, rigidly and in fixed direction, at the three points 3, 6 and 9, but for the purpose of levelling and changing the height of fire, the gun carriage can be adjusted by the length of the bracing strut 8 being changed. 1

Now if'for the removal of the supporting leg 1', the strut 8, after releasing its connection 67, be folded about the bolt 9 down against the leg, on the last part of the swinging movement a projection 13 on thestrut presses on a shoulder on the sliding memberl l guided in the head of' the supporting leg.- This sliding rocks a lever 15 which engages therewith and also with the movable jaw 11, whereby the jaw 11 isretracted from its closed position and into the end of the supporting leg (Fig. 2). The hitherto closed bearing tongs 10, 11 are now opened and the leg 1, by the disengagement of its hook from the bolt 3, can easily be removed from the gun mounting. The strut 8 is secured in its collapsed position by a spring clamp 16 on the supn porting leg, and the clamping, power of the said spring clamp suffices to withstand the jolting which occurs during transport and also the opposing action of the spring 12.

The above described manipulation which can be carried out easily and quickly on the removal of the connected supporting leg from the gun mounting is, therefore, as follows: The retaining bolt 6 for the strut 8 is turned round, the strut is collapsed and the supporting leg 1 is disconnected.. In connecting'the leg, these operations are carried out in reversed order.

We claim:-

1. A gun carriage comprising a gun mounting, removable legs adapted to support the mounti s, j ints. with. elease mechanism. connecting the legs tothe mounting, struts movable mm and out of effective position for bracing the legs relatively to the gun mounting, and means actuated automatically by the said movements of the struts for engaging and releasing the leg: iQints.

2. A gun carriage comprising a gun mounting,

removable legs adapted to support the mounting, joints with release mechanism connecti the legs to the mounting, struts for bracing the legs relatively to the mounting and. rmevably connected thereto, each strut when disconnected, being pivotable into a position alongside the leg, and means actuated automatically'by the struts joint pins on said mounting, legs adapted to support said mounting, jaw members on said legs for engaging the joint pins, one of said members oneach. leg beingretractable to permit the leg to be removed from its joint pin, strutsnmvable into and out of efiective position for bracing the legs relatively to the gun mounting, and. means on the struts for actuating the retractable jaw members. 7

5. Agun carriage comprising a gun mounting, joint pins on saidi'mounting, legs adapted to support said mounting, jaw members on said legs foriengaging the joint pins, one of said members foneach leg being 'retractable to permit the leg to-he removed from its joint pin, struts movable into and out of effective position for bracing the legs relatively, to the gun mounting, springs urging the movable jaws towards the joint pins, and means. on the struts for retracting said jaws against the action of their springs when the struts arepivoted into non-bracing. position v 6.; A gun carriage according to claim 1 in which 1 means: are provided. fior removably connecting the struts to the. mounting, said means comprising flattened joint pins; hooks on. theastrutsxemhracing said joint pins, and means for turning the joint pins to. enable their flat portions to enter and leave. the hooks. V HEINRICH HERLACH.

FRITZ HEBLACI-I'. 

